Archived entries for MAU

In our earlier analyses, we observed that Facebook’s user base growth in North America region was outpaced by Facebook’s other regions, especially its emerging market regions Asia and rest of world. In fact, Facebook’s S-1 filing revealed to an extent that this was occurring. Based on the latest quarterly data, we can see that Facebook’s emerging market regions continue to outgrow its established markets on a sequential basis.

Facebook provides data about monthly active users (MAUs) and daily active users (DAUs). MAU data show that Facebook’s growth in North America has slowed substantially relative to growth in its other markets. At a reported 195 million monthly active users, Facebook continues to edge closer to market saturation in North America. As we can see, the growth rate has slowed to between 1% and 2% for the past three quarters.1

According to its 10-Q, Europe region includes all users from Russia and Turkey. Europe region is therefore larger than North America; however, it shows simliar user base growth deceleration. According to Facebook, Europe region accounted for 269 million monthly active users. The region is still growing slightly faster than North America, showing 3% sequential growth. However, Europe region shows a maturation trend simliar to North America.

With the release of Q4 2012 earnings, Facebook opted to release more data to color its mobile user base growth. Not only did the company released its latest mobile monthly active users, but for the first time Facebook also provided metrics for mobile only monthly active users (mobile MAUs), indicating a shift in the company’s focus toward mobile.1

Facebook’s monthly mobile active user base has been growing steadily since the company began providing metrics. Facebook saw 680 million mobile monthly active users in the quarter, an increase of 57% from the year-ago quarter. Although Facebook does not share quarterly mobile daily active users, the company indicated that mobile DAUs exceeded web-based DAUs for the first time in the company’s history.

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Continuance, a Facebook analysis blog, explores operational and financial indicators to evaluate Facebook and its stock performance, and evaluates trends in social networking and mobile communications.